Donald Trump's team says his wife made 'rape' accusation to 'exploit' him in divorce case

Donald Trump's presidential-campaign team fired back Monday night
after The Daily Beast
published an explosive story highlighting decades-old
comments Trump's first wife made in which she used the word
"rape" to describe one of their sexual encounters.

When the allegations first surfaced in 1993, Ivana Trump issued a
statement clarifying that she didn't mean the term in a "a
literal or criminal sense."

A representative for Trump, who is now a front-runner in many
polls of the Republican primary, provided a statement to Business
Insider that said the incident was "old news and it never
happened." The person also said Ivana Trump made up the "rape"
allegation as part of an effort to "exploit" Trump during their
divorce proceedings in the early '90s.

"This is an event that has been widely reported on in the past —
it is old news and it never happened," the Trump representative
said. "It is a standard lawyer technique, which was used to
exploit more money from Mr. Trump especially since he had an
ironclad prenuptial agreement."

Ivana Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment
from Business Insider on Monday evening.

"During a deposition given by me in connection with my
matrimonial case, I stated that my husband had raped me," Ivana
Trump's statement said. "[O]n one occasion during 1989, Mr. Trump
and I had marital relations in which he behaved very differently
toward me than he had during our marriage. As a woman, I felt
violated, as the love and tenderness, which he normally exhibited
towards me, was absent. I referred to this as a 'rape,' but I do
not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal
sense."

Along with saying the "rape" incident "never happened" and was
merely an attempt by Ivana to "exploit" Trump in their divorce,
the Trump campaign representative also slammed The Daily Beast in
the statement provided to Business Insider on Monday.

"It is just a way for the badly failing and money-losing Daily
Beast, which has been reporting inaccurately on Mr. Trump for
years, to get some publicity for itself," the Trump
representative said.

The Daily Beast's initial story on the rape allegation included
Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen, claiming that legally "you
cannot rape your spouse." According to The Daily Beast, Cohen
also threatened the site's reporters with legal action if
they published a story on the accusations.

"I will make sure that you and I meet one day while we're in the
courthouse," Cohen said, according to The Daily Beast. "And I
will take you for every penny you still don't have. And I will
come after your Daily Beast and everybody else that you possibly
know. So I'm warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because
what I'm going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting.
You understand me?"

Business Insider reached out to The Daily Beast's executive
editor, Noah Shachtman, who provided a series of questions he had
for the Trump campaign including whether it had any examples of
his site reporting incorrectly on Trump.

"Did they actually provide any examples of those inaccuracies, or
are their media critiques as busted as their legal
interpretations?" Shachtman said.

"I'd like to know if Mr. Trump also feels that marital rape is
not a crime ... We stand by our reporting," Shachtman said,
adding: "If this was such old, nothing news, why is the Trump
campaign moving so aggressively to squash it? Why did they
threaten our reporter? And also, if Mr. Trump actually makes his
way to the White House, the kind of intimidation tactics that Mr.
Cohen displayed tonight, would he consider those to be the norm
for his administration? I'd love to know answers to those
things."

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